Premier League 2019-20: 3 reasons why Ole Gunnar Solskjaer can finish the season as Manchester United manager

#2 Absence of a competitive squad

Manchester United have desperately missed Pogba and Martial while they recovered from injury.

Solskjaer has been on the receiving end of the ire of the United fans due to the sorry state of affairs on the pitch. However, the Norwegian has been out of luck with injuries this season. Only Norwich City has missed more players due to injuries than Manchester United this season. The fact that the Canaries are 19th in the table shows how devastating injuries can be.

Solskjaer has missed Paul Pogba, Anthony Martial and Luke Shaw for majority of the games so far and Eric Bailly is yet to kick a ball this season. While Martial returned to the bench against Liverpool, Pogba and Shaw are yet to regain full fitness. In addition, Victor Lindelof and Aaron Wan-Bissaka have both missed a couple of games while Axel Tuanzebe picked up a knock while warming up on Sunday. It would be unfair to judge the Norwegian in a season where injuries have hurt his chances.

Manchester United’s inability to reinforce the squad in the summer transfer window has also been a reason for the club’s dismal run so far. United made three stellar signings but their net spend in the summer was a mere £75m. It is clear that this squad is not at the level needed to compete for the league title, so Solskjaer deserves to be judged only after he gets to assemble a team of his liking.

About the author

Deepungsu is a veteran football journalist who has been covering daily transfer roundups and news for over six years at Sportskeeda. He has written more than 9000 articles for the website, and has garnered over 20 million reads.

Deepungsu holds a PG degree in Microbiology and an MBA degree in Total Quality Management. He has an extensive two-decade long writing experience, which includes a decade of sports blogging. His writing prowess has even led his work getting cited on the legendary Franz Beckenbauer's Wikipedia page.

Inspired by Diego Maradona, Deepungsu played as an attacking midfielder for his local club at subdivision level in his initial years and scored an important goal or two. However, his all-time favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and evidently, he feels Argentina's glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment for fulfilling his long-standing dream. He is also an ardent East Bengal fan.

Deepungsu has been a Manchester United supporter since the year 2000. Unsurprisingly, his favorite manager is Sir Alex Ferguson and the Scotsman helped him get through some of the toughest days of his life. Like the fiery Scot, Deepungsu also leaves no stone unturned when it comes to accuracy in articles and only relies on credible sources.

Despite believing in Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland to create an iconic rivalry, Deepungsu reckons no one can match the longevity of Messi and Ronaldo. He spends his leisure time writing about life on his blog, reading books, and playing the guitar.

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Edited by A. Ayush Chatterjee